Innovation squared: New and growing startups

(From left) Finance major Nataliya Zubrylova, DMSB'18, and management major Yana Sybiga speak with Unscrambled Melody co-founder, Anh Tran, CIS'17, DMSB'17, during the Husky Startup Challenge Demo Day inside the Curry Center Ballroom last Tuesday. Unscrambled Melody is an online hub allowing intermediate musicians to practice more effectively and work on their skill. Photo by Mariah Tauger.

A score of North­eastern inno­va­tors and entre­pre­neurs show­cased their ven­tures and inno­v­a­tive prod­ucts at two major campus events during Global Entre­pre­neur­ship Week.

The first kicked off Tuesday night in the Curry Stu­dent Center Ball­room where stu­dents and alumni exhib­ited their prod­ucts and inno­va­tions at Demo Day, which marks the con­clu­sion of Husky Startup Chal­lenge, a semester-​​long busi­ness devel­op­ment com­pe­ti­tion run by the North­eastern Entre­pre­neurs Club. Then on Wednesday evening, Cabot Field House trans­formed into a bustling expo for young busi­ness owners to show­case their ven­tures at NEXPO, a bian­nual entre­pre­neur­ship expo­si­tion hosted by IDEA, Northeastern’s student-​​run ven­ture accelerator.

Global Entre­pre­neur­ship Week is the world’s largest cel­e­bra­tion of inno­va­tors and entre­pre­neurs. More than 130 coun­tries par­tic­i­pate in the annual series, which is spon­sored by the Kauffman Foun­da­tion. At North­eastern, each day of Entre­pre­neur­ship Week had a theme based on mile­stones in the ven­ture process: Monday’s theme was Edu­cate, Tuesday’s was Incu­bate, and Wednesday’s was Launch.

Anh Tran, DMSB'17, CIS'17, co-founder of Unscrambled Melody, talks about the online hub for intermediate musicians to practice their skills.

Nick Materise, right, E'16, S'16, founder of CurbView, speaks to mechanical engineering student Cargri Dikilitas, center, E'16. CurbView is an application that assists drivers in finding open parking spaces in and around the city.

Brian Whittemore, left, DMSB'11, and his cousin and business partner Trevor Nelson speak with visitor about their company, Pure Solutions, which uses all natural plant extracts to control ticks and mosquitoes.

Bentley University student Anurag Allena listens to music produced by Greenline Records, Northeastern University's student-run record label.

Thomas Olsen, E'11, president and founder of Zephyr Energy Corporation, which is currently developing a non-rotating wind energy generator, seen in miniature at left.

Ryan Wright, E'09, founder and CEO at Sol Power LLC, speaks with Abate De Mey, E'14. Sol Power offers a solar-powered charging station for cell phones and tablets.

Nine­teen star­tups par­tic­i­pated in Demo Day. Over the course of the evening, stu­dents and alumni pre­sented their busi­ness ideas to more than 430 guests while also com­peting for more than $5,000 in cash prizes awarded by a panel of judges.

“It’s really exciting,” said Casey Hogan, pres­i­dent of the Entre­pre­neurs Club. “This is their prom. They’ve really had their heads down working all semester and this is their day to show it off. They really deserve it.”

Second-​​year stu­dent Ian Carlson won first place for cre­ating an elec­trical kit for long­boards; Olin Nelson won second place for PicMe, a search engine for pho­tog­ra­phers; and third place went to Cur­b­View, an open parking spot loca­tion sensor and application.

“We are still in the begin­ning stages,” said Curtis Bur­rowes, E’13, one of CurbView’s devel­opers. “There are a lot of ven­ture guys [at Demo Day] looking at the tech­nolo­gies. If we find the right person to work with, that will def­i­nitely help.”

Guests played no small part in the evening’s fes­tiv­i­ties, voting for their favorite ven­ture. They selected Stow­away, a mar­ket­place con­necting people who need storage with those who have unused space in their apart­ment or home.

Some of the busi­ness ven­tures show­cased at Demo Day were also fea­tured the fol­lowing evening at NEXPO, along with about 45 other ven­tures that have worked with IDEA. Founded by North­eastern stu­dents in 2008, the student-​​run ven­ture accel­er­ator helps stu­dents and alumni create, develop, and accel­erate new busi­nesses through coaching, men­toring, and gap funding.

Brian Whit­te­more, DMSB’11, and his cousin Trevor Nelson show­cased Pure Solu­tions, an all-​​natural mos­quito and tick spray cre­ated in 2008 with the help of IDEA co-​​founder Ashkan Afkhami.

“[The IDEA co-​​founders] wanted to try and build their pro­gram and we wanted to take advan­tage of some of the things they offered,” Whit­te­more said. “They pro­vide a huge oppor­tu­nity for net­working. That’s one of the rea­sons we enjoy coming to these events.”

The co-​​founders of SolPower devel­oped an out­door solar-​​powered cell phone charging sta­tion, that can charge up to 15 cell phones at once. Each phone is held in a small, indi­vidual locker that has a reset­table com­bi­na­tion. Each locker has a charger that is equipped to charge about 95 per­cent of cell phones on the market.

“We are tar­geting heavily con­cen­trated out­door areas such as col­leges, city parks, and beaches,” said com­pany co-​​founder Ryan Wright, E’09. “It takes about an hour to fully charge a device, and the lockers allow you to come and go as you please.”

About the Writer

Joe O'Connell is a staff writer for News@Northeastern. A former newspaper reporter and editor, Joe came to Northeastern after working for three different daily newspapers in Massachusetts. Joe is a UNH grad and is finding it difficult to pick which hockey team to cheer for. When he isn't working, Joe can be found watching Boston's sports teams in their athletic endeavors, playing golf badly, and washing hospital scrubs. Follow him on Twitter @joconnell_nu

News@Northeastern is Northeastern University’s primary source of news and information. Whether it happens in the classroom, in a laboratory, or on another continent, we bring you timely stories about every aspect of life, learning and discovery at Northeastern. Contact the news team